Obama unveils mortgage relief, Wall Street panics

The market continued its drop this morning after President Obama unveiled details of his $75 billion mortgage relief plan.

The plan is designed to keep up to 9 million Americans from losing their homes by helping bail out borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. It also aims to help those facing immediate foreclosure.

What makes investors nervous, according to analysts, is that it’s more ambitious than expected. It also follows a Commerce Department report that says new home construction was down 16.8 percent in January to a record low annual rate of 466,000 units.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 43.24, or 0.57 percent, to 7,709.36.